Pathfinder - The Psychic Handbook

Last Updated: May 23, 2017

Disclaimer

I will use content from the core rules, but will intentionally omit any content not published
on the official Pathfinder SRD due to the
unmanageable volume of non-SRD content, and the wildly varying quality of non-SRD content.
If you would like me to write handbooks for specific content not published on the official
SRD, please email me and I will consider it on a case-by-case
basis. I will use the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build
handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

Temporary Note: Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures were
both recently added to the SRD. I'm excited to explore them, and I am actively working
on adding their contents to my collection of handbooks. I appreciate your patience while
I make these changes.

Introduction

The Psychic is the psychic equivalent of the Sorcerer. It casts spells spontaneously,
but it's Intelligence-based like a wizard. The Psychic's spell list overlaps with the
Sorcerer/Wizard spell list quite a bit, but isn't quite as large.

Like the Wizard, the Psychic can fill a variety of roles thanks to their expansive
skills and spell list. No role except healer is beyond your reach, though the psychic
excels as a Striker, Support, and a Utility Caster. Charisma-heavy psychics also make
excellent Faces. However, the Occultist's spells focus much more heavily on mind-affecting effects.
While many of these are powerful, this also comes with complications. Anything that
is mindless or is resistant or immune to mind-affecting effects (constructs, undead,
etc.) will be difficult for the Occultist to handle.

Psychic Class Features

Hit Points: d6 hit points leaves you pretty squishy,
but you have a laundry list of defensive options to put in front of your hit points.

Proficiencies: Simple weapons are nice, but you're not
going to use them. No armor, either, but a mithral buckler and a haramaki will be
plenty alongside your magical defenses.

Skills: Psychics only get 2+ skills, but you get
every knowledge skill as a class skill plus every Face skill, and your absurd
intelligence will give you plenty of skill points to throw around. Remember that permanently
increasing your intelligence will give you additional skill points retroactively,
which will be nice when you hit levels 8 and 16.

Spells: The Psychic is the only psychic spellcaster that
gets full casting.

Knacks: Knacks are cantrips with a funny name. Just like
cantrips, they're fantastic and extremely versatile.

Phrenic Pool (Su): Phrenic Pool powers your amplifications.
You want your pool to be as big as possible, and you want to recharge it as quickly as
you can after using points. The only use for your phrenic pool points is your
phrenic amplifications, so be sure to select options which you can regularly depend
upon. If you go an entire day without spending a phrenic pool point you're doing something
wrong.

Phrenic Amplifications: A few of the phrenic amplifications
are extremely powerful, but most are bad. The feature as a whole is fine, and you only
get three amplifications before you get Major Amplifications, but there aren't enough
good options to leave much room for customization. See my
Phrenic
Amplification Breakdown for further analysis.

Psychic Discipline (Ex or Sp): Your psychic discipline
grants you an extra spell known at every spell level, a mechanism to add extra points
to your Phrenic Pool throughout the day, and several special abilities. Unfortunately,
very few of the discipline options are good. See my
Psychic
Disciplines Breakdown for further guidance.

Detect Thoughts (Sp): Detect thoughts is a situational
spell, and situational spells are hard for spontaneous casters to use since you've got
a limited selection of spells known. This gives it to you for free, and it doesn't use
a spell slot the first time you use it each day.

Telepathic Bond (Sp): Telepathic bond is a fantastic
spell that keeps your party in constant communication without giving yourselves away.
If my party is trying to be subtle in any way, I try to make sure that someone in the
party can cast this.

Telepathy (Su): Telepathy doesn't require a language, so
if you picked up Face skills you can now communicate with any creature intelligent
enough to speak a language.

Remade Self (Sp): All of the spell options are excellent,
but at this level a 3rd-level spell isn't going to make a huge difference.

Abilities

The Psychic is very MAD for a spellcaster. Their spellcasting is
Intelligence-based, but depending on your Psychic Discipline you'll need either Wisdom
or Charisma. You also need Dexterity and Constitution for AC, hp, and saves. That
leaves you with just one dump stat compared to the Wizard's two.

Str: Dump to 7. You need the points.

Dex: Saves and AC.

Con: Saves and hp.

Int: Runs your spells.

Wis: If your discipline needs
Wisdom, you want to invest here. If it doesn't, you still don't want to dump this
because you need Will saves.

Cha: If your discipline uses
Charisma, you get to be a Face. If it doesn't, dump this to 7.

Wisdom-based Discipline

25 Point Buy

20 Point Buy

15 Point Buy

Elite Array

Str: 7

Dex: 12

Con: 12

Int: 18

Wis: 16

Cha: 8

Str: 7

Dex: 14

Con: 14

Int: 17

Wis: 14

Cha: 7

Str: 7

Dex: 12

Con: 13

Int: 17

Wis: 14

Cha: 7

Str: 8

Dex: 12

Con: 13

Int: 15

Wis: 14

Cha: 10

Charisma-based Discipline

25 Point Buy

20 Point Buy

15 Point Buy

Elite Array

Str: 7

Dex: 12

Con: 12

Int: 17

Wis: 12

Cha: 16

Str: 7

Dex: 12

Con: 12

Int: 17

Wis: 12

Cha: 14

Str: 7

Dex: 12

Con: 12

Int: 16

Wis: 10

Cha: 14

Str: 8

Dex: 12

Con: 13

Int: 15

Wis: 10

Cha: 14

Races

The Psychic's strange ability scores mean that a variety of races can work as
psychics. However, your race's ability scores may make some disciplines more appealing
than others.

Dwarf: Wisdom bonus works for some disciplines, and the
bonus duration to abjuration spells from the favored class bonus is useful once it adds
up a bit.

Elf: Dexterity for saves and AC, Intelligence for spells,
+2 to overcome spell resistance that stacks with Spell Penetration. The Constitution
penalty always hurts, but the Intelligence bonus is well worth it. The favored class
bonus increases the size of your phrenic pool.

Gnome: Charisma works for some disciplines, bonus Constitution,
a penalty to your dump stat, and small size. The favored class bonus increases the
size of your phrenic pool.

Half-Elf: Flexible +2 goes into Intelligence. The favored
class bonus is tempting, but it's hard to justify six levels of favored class bonus
when there are already so few good amplification options.

Half-Orc: Flexible +2 goes into Intelligence.
Unfortunately, that's the only good bit that half-orcs offer. The favored class bonus
is terrible.

Halfling: Charisma works for some disciplines, Dexterity helps
with AC and saves, and small size. The favored class bonus is really unique and exciting.
Treating your Charisma bonus as higher allows you to recharge your phrenic pool more
and use powerful discipline abilities more throughout the day.

Human: Flexible +2 in Intelligence, bonus skill ranks,
and a feat. The favored class bonus gets you extra spells known, solving the largest
problem for spontaneous casters. At low levels you won't be able to use the favored
class bonus for anything interesting (ooh boy, more cantrips!) so put the points into
your hit points or get some extra skill ranks to spread around your gigantic skill
list. I rarely recommend this, but the Dual Talent alternate racial feature may worthwhile
here if you don't need the extra feat.

Traits

Deft Dodger (Combat): +1 to a weak save.

Reactionary (Combat): +2 initiative is huge. Combined
with Improved Initiative you'll go first much more frequently.

Resilient (Combat): +1 to a weak save.

Arcane Temper (Magic): A bonus to initiative and
a bonus to Concentration checks. If you already took a combat trait and didn't
take Reactionary, this is a good option.

Resilient Caster (Magic): Too situational.

Shrouded Casting (Magic): Buy a spell component
pouch.

Volatile Conduit (Magic): 1d4 damage once per day
is nothing.

Life of Toil (Social): +1 to a weak save.

Warrior of Old (Elf Racial): Identical to Reactionary.

Elven Reflexes (Half-Elf Racial): Identical to Reactionary.

Skills

Bluff (Cha): Helpful for any Face.

Diplomacy (Cha): The king of Face skills.

Fly (Dex): One rank is plenty.

Intimidate (Cha): Helpful for any Face.

Knowledge (Arcana) (Int): Identify constructs, dragons,
and magical beats. Fairly few classes get access to this, so you need to step up here.

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Int): Identify aberrations and
oozes. If you spend any time underground or in dungeons, this is worth maxing. Otherwise,
spend one rank and ride your intelligence bonus.

Knowledge (Engineering) (Int): One rank maybe.

Knowledge (Geography) (Int): One rank maybe.

Knowledge (history) (Int): Situational, and very
dependent on the campaign.

Knowledge (Local) (Int): Definitely worth a rank, maybe
more if you don't have a rogue putting ranks in this.

Knowledge (Nature) (Int): Identify animals. Unless you
have a druid or ranger, you may be the only one in the party with this skill.

Knowledge (Nobility) (Int): Situational, and very
dependent on the campaign.

Knowledge (Planes) (Int): Identify outsiders. Outsiders
are diverse and strange, and knowing stuff about them will help your survival greatly.

Knowledge (Religion) (Int): Identify undead. More easily
available than Knowledge (Arcana), but still very useful, especially since your cleric
probably dumped intelligence.

Feats

Psychic feats are largely identical to Wizard feats, so I'll only cover
Psychic-specific feats here. For further advice on feats, see my
Wizard Handbook.

Elongated Cranium: This is a weird feat. If you're
not your party's Face, the Ovoid Compression option is great because it gets you
+2 to all of your Intelligence-based skills (Knowledge, etc.). The once/day effects
are neat, but not especially useful since they're once/day.

Expanded Phrenic Pool: Phrenic pool is a great
resource, but I would delay taking this until you have at least two amplifications
so that you have good ways to consume the points.

Extra Amplification: There aren't a lot of good
amplification options, so if you spend a feat to get an extra you'll likely find
yourself with at least one amplification that you'll neve3r use.

Weapons

Stop. Put that down. You're going to hurt yourself.

Dagger: Carry one or two for utility purposes,
but don't plan to pull them out in combat.

Crossbow, Light: Useful at low levels when you're
low on spell slots and don't want to use Daze for whatever reason.

Armor

If you need AC, you're doing something wrong. Still, it doesn't hurt to
get some cheap protection. Keep in mind that Mage Armor is generally your
best bet when you need AC, but Mage Armor isn't always on.

Armor is presented in the order in which you should acquire it, rather than
alphabetical order.

Haramaki: +1 AC, no arcane spell failure, and
at 5 gp you can afford it at first level.

Spells

This section won't address every spell on your spell list, but it will point out
some especially notable options. For a complete list of spells, see the
SRD Spell Index.

0-Level Spells

Daze: Save-or-suck as a cantrip, but it only
works against humanoids. It's still a great option since 4 HD will get you a
long way against humanoids.

Prestidigitation: Least Wish. A must-have.

Telekinetic Projectile: Your only damage-dealing
cantrip. It uses a normal attack, so a light crossbow is strictly better.

Virtue: At low levels 1 temporary hit point could
save your life. Walk around your party constantly refreshing Virtue between
encounters so that everyone in melee gets a nice bubble. Even as you advance
levels, it may be worth the time to cast Virtue on your Defender if you have
nothing better to do with your time.

Permanent Spells

Reduce Person: Reducing your size offers several
useful benefits. Dexterity improves your poor Reflex saves, you get a size bonus
to AC, and you get a net +2 to your ranged touch attacks for great spells like
Disintegrate. The Strength penalty doesn't matter. You could reduce your size to
tiny if your race is normally small, and it still won't have a significant
negative effect. Even if you like to use polymorph spells, this won't handicap
you since most of your polymorph forms aren't humanoid and thus won't be affected
by Reduce Person.